Obituary

Pat Priestman

In 1973, Birmingham city council began a vast programme of renewing older housing, but had to win confidence from residents, fearful that bulldozers were still lurking around the corner. It was then that the young Pat Priestman, who has died of a stroke aged 63, became active in the Balsall Heath Association, and a founder member of the Balsall Heath Residents' Action Group.

Pat uncompromisingly defended residents and their communities, making the case for changes in policies - or for proper implementation of good policies. She helped to set up and run the city's first area caretaker project, looking after the environment, home maintenance and security for older people. Soon more than 20 similar, resident-led projects existed in the city.

Pat was known as someone who was not afraid to take on the city council when services were not running as they should. So when the citywide community forum (CF) was formed, Pat became secretary of an organisation crucial to the success of the programme that transformed inner Birmingham.

Pat Hickman was born in Balsall Heath. Her mother came from the brewing trade. Her father worked in a Bakelite factory. Pat was educated at Queensbridge school, leaving at 15 to work in a shoe shop. She married Geoffrey Priestman and brought up three daughters while holding down several part-time jobs.

Birmingham city council's urban renewal programme led national policy, and CF, through Pat and her comrades, influenced that programme. Later Pat, herself a council tenant, was central to CF's campaign against damp and disrepair in council housing. She travelled to other cities, sharing CF's experience of renewal processes. In 1982, the forum visited West German housing projects, and four years later Dutch renewal projects. Pat also gave her time to students at Birmingham University and the University of Central England in Birmingham. In 1996 she visited Moscow housing movement groups: an ordinary Balsall Heath woman addressing the Moscow Duma on residents' participation.

In the 1990s she was a co-founder of Birmingham for People, which campaigned for a more human approach to city-centre redevelopment and produced A People's Plan for Birmingham (1991). She was involved in a host of other local groups, including, for 14 years, the city's clearance forum. The city council, with which she had crossed swords so often, sent a wreath with a remarkable tribute to her funeral.

Pat read, wrote poetry and loved travel. At 63, she was taking flying lessons. But those who knew her thought she, one of Birmingham's most amazing citizens, could fly pretty well already. She is survived by her partner Barry - whom she met through CF in 1989 - and by her three daughters, Elaine, Karen and Elizabeth, and granddaughter, Laura.

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